Markers of History

Historic Jamestowne mark­ers
Governor Harvey’s House, 1630s

Location: Colonial NHP, Jamestown, VA 23185

Visited: July 4, 2009, 1:55pm

Transcription of marker: John Harvey served as a mem­ber of a royal com­mis­sion inves­ti­gat­ing con­di­tions in Virginia in 1624. As a reward, he received land at the east end of New Towne. There he prob­a­bly built a res­i­dence and a wharf.

A tem­pera­men­tal sea cap­tain, Harvey was twice charged with beat­ing oth­ers – a ser­vant for demand­ing his free­dom and Richard Stephens, a coun­cil­man and fre­quent Harvey opponent.

When newly knighted Sir John Harvey returned as the new gov­er­nor of Virginia in 1630, he acquired addi­tional prop­erty, the for­mer Governor Sir George Yeardley’s lot across Pitch and Tar Swamp and this prime New Towne lot. Here he built a fine house that often dou­bled as the state­house dur­ing the 1630s.

Although the crown replaced Harvey as gov­er­nor in 1639, his house con­tin­ued in use as a state­house through the 1640s and 1650s. When Sir William Berkeley arrived in 1642, it again dou­bled as a town res­i­dence for the gov­er­nor. After Bacon’s rebels sacked and burned Jamestown in 1676, the house was rebuilt for a final time.

My impres­sions: I don’t know what is more sur­pris­ing to me: a pri­vate home being used as a state­house or the fact that it con­tin­ued that way after the owner was no longer gov­er­nor. I guess, think­ing about it a lit­tle more, it is less sur­pris­ing than it ini­tially seems, because the gov­er­nor was an appointed posi­tion at the time. I won­der if Governor Harvey returned to England after he was replaced. If so, he wouldn’t have needed it any longer, at least for a while. (I mean, he did leave in the 1920s and return to serve as governor.

I won­der what qual­i­ties there were that led the crown to decide that a “tem­pera­men­tal for­mer sea cap­tain” was suit­able to gov­ern the colony. Was his style a help or a hin­drance? Or was he tem­pera­men­tal enough that the English were just as happy to see him on the other side of the ocean from them?

Historic Jamestowne mark­ers
Swann’s Tavern, 1670s

Location: Historic Jamestown, Colonial NHP, Jamestown, VA 23185

Visited: July 4, 2009, 1:55pm

Transcription of marker: Although coun­cil­man Colonel Thomas Swann resided across the James River at his Swann Point plan­ta­tion, he also leased a Jamestown tav­ern that pro­vided accom­mo­da­tions to colonists who attended the assem­bly and courts, or had busi­ness in town.

Documents and exca­va­tion of a large brick foun­da­tion iden­tify this struc­ture as pos­si­ble Col. Swann’s tav­ern. The elon­gated four-room ground floor was typ­i­cal of such estab­lish­ments. An abun­dance of bot­tle glass and a brass spigot from casks of beer or cider stored in the cel­lar, pro­vide addi­tional evi­dence of such use.

Because Col. Swann, nick­named “ye greate toad,” advised the rebel Nathaniel Bacon, his Swann’s Point plan­ta­tion remained undam­aged dur­ing Bacon’s Rebellion. Charred tim­bers here, how­ever, sug­gest that his tav­ern burned dur­ing the sack of Jamestown. Repaired by 1679, the tav­ern con­tin­ued to oper­ate along with the dozen oth­ers in the town.

My impres­sions: The first thing that started ring­ing bells from this marker for me is the name Nathaniel Bacon, because at about the time I was start­ing to snarf land­marks and log them on Markeroni (and later on this blog), my wife and I drove to a church retreat a cou­ple of hours away. And on the way, we passed numer­ous his­tor­i­cal mark­ers. On the way home, I counted about a dozen. But because of dis­tance, time, and the fact that we were dri­ving another mem­ber of our con­gre­ga­tion with us, we didn’t stop for any of them, but I def­i­nitely remem­ber the odd-sounding title of Bacon’s Castle. So, while I expect I’ll learn more when we make our next trip that way and I’m able to read the marker, I also know what name to research should I want to learn more in the interim.

The other thing, related to that, is to think about the influ­ence of being an insider. From the retelling on this marker, Swann was able to use his insider’s “pull” to keep his lands across the river safe from Bacon and his rebel­lion. But it also shows that the pull has lim­its, as the tav­ern here appar­ently burned. Some things seem to be with us for­ever, and insider influ­ence seems to be one of them!

Historic Jamestowne mark­ers
Foundations at Jamestown

Location: Historic Jametowne, Colonial NHP, Jamestown, VA 23185

Visited: July 4, 2009, 1:55pm

Transcription of marker: The remains of Jamestown now lie buried beneath the ground. Archeologists have unearthed some of the known town site, but the orig­i­nal foun­da­tions of struc­tures would erode quickly if left exposed to wind, weather, and acid rain. The foun­da­tions have been reburied. The bricks you see here today are mod­ern repro­duc­tions of the orig­i­nal foun­da­tions underneath.

My impres­sions: This is another case of good place­ment. The marker is as you are enter­ing the park, so you learn this as you’re going in. In one sense, it’s dis­ap­point­ing not to be see­ing the actual struc­tures that were orig­i­nally built there. But by explain­ing that upfront, I under­stood why that’s the case and was able to enjoy the site with­out the frus­tra­tion that would have come if I’d found out later.

I also raise my eye­brow a bit at the spec­i­fi­ca­tion of “acid rain.” I can under­stand that it would make rain more of a haz­ard than “plain old rain,” I found it a lit­tle dis­tract­ing, espe­cially when paired with wind and weather: nat­ural phe­nom­ena. Because what I want to take away from this is a reminder that one has to be care­ful with irre­place­able his­tor­i­cal arti­facts. There’s the stereo­typ­i­cal image of some­body in an archives wear­ing gloves and gin­gerly han­dling old books and papers, but even the build­ing mate­ri­als here would dis­ap­pear if re-exposed to nature’s whims. Although I guess “plain old rain” would be included under “weather,” mak­ing acid rain a dif­fer­ent hazard…perhaps.

Monuments, Statues, and Memorials
Jamestown Tercentenary Monument

Location: Historic Jamestowne, Colonial NHP, Jamestown, VA 23185

Visited: July 4, 2009, 1:45pm

Transcription of monument:

[north side]

Virginia Company
of London
Chartered April 10, 1606
Founded
Jamestown
and sus­tained
Virginia
1607 — 1624

[west side]

This mon­u­ment
was erected by
the United States
A.D. 1907
to com­mem­o­rate
the three hun­dredth
anniver­sary of
the set­tle­ment here

[south side, at same level as other engrav­ings]

Jamestown
The first per­ma­nent
colony of the
English peo­ple
The birth­place of
Virginia
and of
the United States
 – May 13 — 1607 -

[south side, on the base]

“Lastly and chiefly the way to pros­per and achieve good suc­cess is to make your­selves all of one mind for the good of your coun­try, and your own, and to serve and fear God, the giver of all good­ness, for every plan­ta­tion which our heav­enly Father hath not planted shall be rooted out.”

Advice of London Council for Virginia to the colony — 1606

[east side]

Representative
gov­ern­ment in
America
began in the
first House of
Burgesses
assem­bled here
July 30, 1619

My impres­sions: This is a very tall and impres­sive mon­u­ment. There seems to me to be some­thing very American about the obelisk: I don’t recall any off the top of my head that I saw in Canada, but this is the third sig­nif­i­cant one I’ve seen in the U.S. (The other two were in my pre-snarfing days: the Washington Monument in Washington, DC and the Masonic mon­u­ment to Washington in Alexandria, VA.) I don’t know what that says that the United States adopted the obelisk so often as a symbol.

Coming, as it does, as you are enter­ing Historic Jamestowne, the mon­u­ment is a great intro­duc­tory reminder to how much his­tory the place holds. It also chal­lenged a bit of my faulty mem­o­ries of his­tory. I had it in my head that Nova Scotia was the birth­place of rep­re­sen­ta­tive gov­ern­ment in the British Empire, but the Internet tells me I’m mis­taken. Nova Scotia saw the start of rep­re­sen­ta­tive gov­ern­ment in Canada, but that came in 1758, well over a cen­tury later than the estab­lish­ment of the House of Burgesses here. (In fact, Nova Scotia cel­e­brated the 250th anniver­sary of its estab­lish­ment there just last year.)

It also awes me to see a mon­u­ment like this and know that it was made early in the 20th cen­tury and that it was erected with­out all of the tech­nol­ogy we have today. And to think of the num­ber of hours it would have taken for all that lettering…what patience and ded­i­ca­tion and craftsmanship!

Historic Jamestowne
Governor Yeardly’s Lot, 1620s

Location: Historic Jamestowne, Colonial NHP, Jamestown, VA 23185

Visited: July 4, 2009, 1:40pm

Transcription of marker:

George Yeardly arrived in Jamestown in 1610, was appointed cap­tain of the guard, and even­tu­ally lieu­tenant gov­er­nor. Later knighted and appointed gov­er­nor of Virginia in 1618, he issued the Great Charter in 1619, estab­lish­ing the first rep­re­sen­ta­tive gov­ern­ment in Virginia.

In 1620, Yeardly acquired a seven-and-a-quarter acre lot extend­ing east from this loca­tion. A 1625 muster roll listed the mem­bers of Yeardly’s large house­hold: Yeardly; his wife Lady Temperance Yeardly; their three chil­dren; and 24 ser­vants, includ­ing three African men and five African women (eight of the first nine Africans doc­u­mented at Jamestown). The muster also lists 50 cat­tle, 40 swine, and 11 goats and kids on Yeardly’s lot. In addi­tion to three dwellings, Yeardly owned three boats — a bar­que, four-ton shal­lop, and skiff.

At this loca­tion, archae­ol­o­gists exca­vated the brick foun­da­tions of a struc­ture that may have been Yeardly’s. Scattered build­ing mate­ri­als along Back River sug­gest that two addi­tional dwellings, per­haps for ser­vants, may have been located at the east­ern end of his lot.

My impres­sions: After writ­ing about the mark­ers on the Colonial Parkway, it’s nice to get to a marker that has a bit of meat to it. And after being in Yorktown, where Americans fought to gain con­trol of their coun­try from the British, it’s a bit of a start to remem­ber that, oh yes, the British were in charge here. I like that this marker both explains who Governor Yeardly was as well as gives a link to the place you are stand­ing when you see it.

It is also stag­ger­ing to see a fam­ily of five requir­ing two dozen ser­vants. It was a dif­fer­ent age, that’s for sure! And more than 100 animals…well, I guess I can see how they would keep many ser­vants busy, since that seems like the type of work a gov­er­nor would not want to sully his hands with.

Notes for future snar­fers: This marker is on the path behind the vis­i­tor cen­ter, after you’ve paid your admis­sion or shown your National Parks pass.

Colonial Parkway mark­ers
The Isthmus

Location: Colonial National Historic Pkwy, Williamsburg, VA 23185

Visited: July 4, 2009, 1:30pm

Transcription of  marker: This mod­ern road crosses to Jamestown about on line with a nat­ural isth­mus which existed in Colonial times. The sandy strip that made Jamestown a “semi-island” was washed away in the 1700’s.

My impres­sions: At last, we’re draw­ing near to Jamestown. It is inter­est­ing to see what water does to land, espe­cially so close to the coast. Having spent most of my life con­sid­er­ably inland from the ocean, I’m not quite used to the divi­sions between land and water being quite so change­able as they are around here (even if I’m largely talk­ing about events of hun­dreds of years ago). I also have to think: Don’t you think the word isth­mus is a funny-sounding word? It cer­tainly doesn’t roll off my tongue easily!

I’m also look­ing for­ward to this blog’s posts arriv­ing at Historic Jamestowne. It was an inter­est­ing place to walk around, though my sta­mina gave out before I ran out of mark­ers! A return trip is in the cards for the future, I’m sure.

August will be a busy month for me, includ­ing mov­ing to a new apart­ment with my wife (our lease appli­ca­tion was approved on Friday), which means that the coin­ci­den­tal tim­ing of a marker titled Real Estate is remark­able. I hope our move won’t have too much effect on my post­ing here, and hope­fully the back­log of mark­ers I’ve vis­ited but not yet blogged about will not rise too much over the next month.

Colonial Parkway mark­ers
Real Estate

Location: Colonial National Historic Pkwy, Williamsburg, VA 23185

Visited: July 4, 2009, 1:25pm

Transcription of marker: Early records tell of a land sale in 1636 being these 500 acres with “all howses…gardens, orchards, ten­e­ments.” The prop­erty passed from Thomas Crompe “of the Neck of Land” to Gershon Buck son of the Reverend Richard Buck who min­is­tered for more than a decade at Jamestown.

My impres­sions: It’s funny to see all sorts of ref­er­ences to land in areas of 500 acres, espe­cially given how large that seems to some­one who’s lived in mostly urban set­tings of one form or another. I also find it inter­est­ing how we have at least one per­son named on this marker who isn’t really known about: Gershon Buck. Looks like his only claim to fame is likely being the son of Richard Buck: Google only had four hits on the son’s name (and pre­sum­ably will have another once this is posted.

State Historical Marker
Virginia K-311
James River

Location: Just S of the James River Bridge on the E side of US 17/US 258/Carrollton Blvd, Carrollton, VA 23314

Visited: July 4, 2009, 10:15am

Transcription of marker: The James River flows about 340 miles from the junc­tion of the Jackson and Cowpasture rivers in Botetourt County to Hampton Roads at the Chesapeake Bay. In 1607 the first per­ma­nent English set­tle­ment in the New World was estab­lished on its banks at Jamestown. The colonists used the river as a path for explo­ration. With mod­ern cities and ship­yards as well as ancient plan­ta­tions lin­ing its banks, the James River remains one of Virginia’s most impor­tant nat­ural resources.

Department of Historic Resources, 1991

My impres­sions: On pre­vi­ous trips (which were all south­bound), we had seen the marker about the time we flew past it on the other side of the road, so this time, my wife was alert to find it (or, at least, a place to pull off the road before we reached the bridge, head­ing north). She cor­rectly guessed which signs were point­ing to a place to park, and was slow­ing down even before I spot­ted the marker.

There is some­thing about the James River. My wife has men­tioned to me a few times how, on her vis­its to my home­town, she found the Ottawa River sim­i­lar to the James. And now, I think I can see the sim­i­lar­i­ties. Both are fairly wide rivers (though the James, espe­cially at this point, is wider) and it can be miles between cross­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties. And, look­ing at this marker, the Ottawa held an impor­tant role in Canada’s explo­ration at a sim­i­lar era (in fact, Samuel de Champlain is reputed to have lost his astro­labe near Cobden, ON in 1613).

Notes for future snar­fers: This is one marker you have to be pre­pared for, because you are mov­ing too quickly to stop in time once you’ve seen it (and it’s a long drive if you miss it, head­ing north and have to cross the whole bridge again). You’ll want to watch for signs for the Virginia Department of Game & Inland Fisheries area, called Ragged Island and use its park­ing lot. The marker is just S of the park­ing lot entrance.

Markeroni sta­tus: Logged.